Meditations on Chapter 15 of John's Gospel
by A Sinner
Summary: This is a meditation on Chapter 15 of John's Gospel, which is the "Vine and the Vine Grower" allegory, and "The World's Hatred". It's more like an essay or a sermon (if you can really call it that as I'm not a priest). I have no standing in the Church and my only training is the years of religious education I've received school. This is written from a Catholic's perspective.


**Greetings to all. I will try to post these little "essays" (for lack of a better term) on certain passages of Scripture when I can and I hope to someday find a way to post these meditations as story chapters (can someone tell me how to do this). Keep in mind that I am a Latin Rite Catholic and that I use the New American Bible most of the time. As I mentioned in the summary, I have no authority in the Church, but I have been taking religion classes ever since I was in the 2nd grade and I am 17 now. Please, tell me what you think because if no one reviews my work, then I'll think that no one is reading my work. Also, if you review this please be nice. That shouldn't be an issue in this section of the website though. God bless. **

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Today, I'd like to take a look at Chapter fifteen of John's Gospel. This is the point where Jesus gives us His "Vine and the Vinegrower" allegory. Keep in mind that I am using the New American Bible, so it might sound different than what you're used to. If you'd like, you can find the New American Bible on the Vatican website. So, please read John chapter 15 before you go on.

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There is a lot to be learned from this passage of Scripture. In this part, we don't see the kind and gentle nature of Jesus that we are used to. Instead, it seems that Jesus is warning us of Hell, as seen in the sixth verse, Jesus tells us "Anyone who does not remain in Me will be thrown out like a branch and wither, people will gather them and throw them in the fire, and they will be burned." As I said, this verse is a warning of Hell. God the Father is the Vine Grower and God the Son (Jesus) is the Vine itself. We are the branches, we bear fruit because of the Vine and the Vine Grower. The Vine Grower prunes the branches so that they bear more fruit. This brings up the question "Well, how does God prune us in our daily lives?" To answer this question, let's pretend that for a second, we have a special vine that can feel sensations such as pain, or the feel of the breeze on a crisp Fall morning. This vine of ours is having parts of its branches cut off and this would bviously cause quite a bit of discomfort for our special plant seeing as it can feel pain (unlike other vines). It seems to me that Jesus is telling us that God sends us challenges as a way of pruning us. By challenging us to follow Him, we grow grow stronger in our faith.

Now, how does God challenge us, and why? Why would a loving God give us challenges that cause us to suffer? I believe that we are given these challenges not because God hates us, but rather the opposite! A teacher loves her students (or she should), and wants to see them succeed, to grow up and to move on. So, she challenges her pupils because she sees the potential that they each possess. While one student may be lacking in one area, another student excels in that very same subject. So, the teacher gives the struggling student some extra help, she challenges her to grow in that subject until she is a straight A student. This is what God does. If we struggle with chastity, God calls us to work harder in that area by calling us to be chaste. If we struggle wither faith and trust in God, then He reaches out to us, challenges us to be faithful to Him. Not out of a desire to see us struggle, but out of a desire to see us grow closer to Him until we reach the point in our lives where He calls us to our Heavenly reward. Remember that God sometimes allows us to suffer not because He is punishing us for our sins, nor is He punishing us for the sins of our society (we know what these are). But because He knows that we will get through this challenge and come out of it with more faith in Him than ever before. I have been through quite a few challenges in my short life, and have come out stronger.

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus issues another challenge to us, which is to "Love others as I have loved you." Jesus has so much love for us that He came down to us from Heaven to die for our sins on the Cross. There is a very old hymn in the Church that is chanted once a year at the Easter Vigil Mass called the Exultet, and one line of this hymn sums this love up pretty well, "...to ransom a slave, You gave away Your Son." We are the slaves, we are the servants. But, in this passage, Jesus calls us His friends. Why? Because He doesn't see us as His slaves that must do His bidding or face the consequences. Instead, we choose to do His bidding as Christians. We choose to serve God as Christians, and we chose this at the moment of our Baptism and we renew this promise every time we renew our Baptismal vows, or we recite the Nicene Creed at Mass every week or any of the Creeds for that matter.

In the second section of this Chapter, Jesus tells us that the world will hate us. And before any of our friends who may not be Christian say "You're not being persecuted!" Please allow me to say that while we are not being persecuted in the sense that our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are, we are being harassed by other humans. We live in a world that so many times encourages us to "leave our faith in the pew", but Jesus calls us to take our faith with us wherever we go, to bring Him with us wherever we are. As Christ tells us, we are not of this world. Yes, we live in it. But we truly belong to Christ and we should live this way, or we will be "cut off from the Vine" as I mentioned earlier on.

Please, take a moment and ask God to help you through any challenges you may be facing at this point in time. Acknowledge that you can't do this alone and that you need His help and His strength to guide you down the right path. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with love of God. And finally, remember that if you are in trouble, you can always bring your prayers to the foot of the Cross, and to Mary our Mother who stood next to the Cross during Her Son's bitter Passion.

God bless,

A Sinner


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